Before boarding the plane on Wednesday to return to Japan, here are items I scribbled down on paper from the Olympics extravaganza of the past few weeks, days that will always remain in my memory. Great performances aplenty, it’s not an easy task to ...

Sixteen action-packed days of competition — plus a few days of soccer that began before the Opening Ceremony on July 27 — delivered a better-than-expected performance for Japan at the 2012 London Olympics. Perhaps Sebastian Coe, chairman of the London Games Organizing Committee, best ...

Woke up, got out of bed. . . This is my Saturday routine on the penultimate day at the London Olympics, in the land that brought you “A Day In The Life,” the Beatles’ tune that spawned countless imitators in print and sound: 8:08 ...

Pick a superlative, any superlative, and add two dozen or more synonyms. And still, the total wow factor created by Usain Bolt’s Olympic body of work goes beyond what your list of words. I’ve attended all four of Bolt’s 100- and 200-meter gold-medal races, ...

Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, is not known for being Party Central. But that changed in a big way when freestyle wrestlers Kaori Icho and Hitomi Obara doubled Japan’s gold medal total on Wednesday, making their hometown proud and bringing immense joy to Tohoku. The locals ...

What if the Soviet Union didn’t invade Afghanistan in 1979? And what if the United States and more than 60 other nations didn’t boycott the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics as a result? Would Sebastian Coe still have won the first of two 1,500-meter Olympic ...

No one is insisting that the Olympic tennis tournament becomes an unofficial fifth Grand Slam once every four years. It is, however, the closest thing to a major tournament in 2012 away from the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and upcoming U.S. Open. The ...

Let’s be honest, nothing Michael Phelps has accomplished as an Olympic swimmer should surprise us. Not after his perfect eight-for-eight gold medal quest in Beijing. Twenty-one medals . . . and counting. The Baltimore Bullet is a one-man Guinness Book of World Records. Friday ...

Even though Japan invented judo and the nation’s athletes have excelled at the Olympics and world championship competitions over the years, there were unrealistic expectations placed on Japanese judoka before the 2012 Summer Games. Top Japanese judo officials had stated that medal domination — ...

A year ago, Nadeshiko Japan captured the world’s hearts, the Women’s World Cup champion producing a fabulous upset over the heavily favored United States to grab the title. Only a few months after the devastation of March 11, the squad, led by scoring ace ...

There are more than 10,000 athletes listed as participants in the London Olympics. The sheer volume of athletes from some nations is staggering. There are 556 from the United Kingdom, 531 from the United States, 435 from Russia, 413 from Australia, 370 from China ...

Valentine’s Day is not associated with a passion for one’s job, but rather, you know, a different kind of affection. Nevertheless, a story published on Feb. 14 by the Asahi Shimbun highlighted Norimasa Hirai’s passion for his job and the guidance he has given ...